We have counted the stops so far, just 20 minutes from Berkeley: five stops. First stop, 2 minutes into take off " wow, thing are flying around, forgot to put that away". Second stop: getting gas close by, luckily some of the pumps have a hangover larger than our "draft", a.k.a. height of 10.5 feet. Third stop just hundred yards from the gas station, to check on possible damage while hitting the sidewalk driving away from the station. Betsy is tough, as it turns out, no damage done! During our 4th stop, we are adjusting Tessa's seat belt, so she is more comfortable. And then, yes final stop before we are really on our way: picking up a new house battery at Whale Point, as we let Tessa and friends play a bit too long with lights the weekend before...In the parking lot, we quickly eat some lunch in our mobile home and hit the road.
Fortunately, we are all in a good mood, the weather is gorgeous and we are happy and lucky that Tod scored us a simple no hook-up campsite for one night in a popular State Park surrounded by 200-foot redwood trees.
And it was great! We enjoyed the scenery, Tessa biked, made new friends and invited herself to neighboring tents, we cooled off in the stream. We bbq'ed and ate marsh mellows, and our cozy Betsy made for a nice rest when we needed it. At night, the temperature cooled down a lot, so we ended up turning on our LPG heater the next morning. Note to fellow boaters: even our fridge and hot water heater run on LPG! The next morning we drove to one of the beaches of Point Reyes, and learned that Betsy has no problem with a 17% grade. What's great is that you can just quickly shower off in your home, make a lovely lunch and enjoy the view. And to our surprise....our daughter was so wiped out on the way back that she napped for 1.5 hrs straight on the drive home ( she doesn't nap in a car, and has recently stopped napping at all).
So our maiden voyage was a success, and we can see we will have plenty of fun with Betsy. Tessa is already asking when we are going camping again.
